Our Wireless Addiction Is Creating a Big E-Waste Problem

Because hundreds of millions of new cell phones are sold every year just in the U.S., and only a small percentage of the old ones ever make it to a proper recycling facility, our modern mobile lifestyle is creating a huge e-waste problem.

This trend of going wireless for phone service is certainly handy for the users, but if those figures from the CDC are accurate, they could spell an increasing problem for e-waste disposal in this country (and the rest of the world), because the average replacement/upgrade interval is just 18 months, which adds up to a whole lot of cell phones that will end up in landfills or incinerators.

There have been campaigns from mobile providers to take back their devices for recycling, such as the recent effort by AT&T (which set a Guinness World Record), and some other third-party recycling or reselling services, but the unfortunate truth of e-waste recycling is that an estimated 50-80% of collected electronics end up getting exported to developing nations. This trend of exporting our e-waste means that we're also exporting all of the toxic effects of the materials to places with extremely lax regulations for health, safety, and the environment.

One rather obvious solution is to encourage or require (either through tax breaks or other incentives, or through more strict regulation) that makers and sellers of mobile devices, or even all electronics, implement programs for both the collection and recycling of their products. This could be designed with incentives for the end user -- such as cash or credit or a charitable donation in their name -- to easily return their old device, as one study found that 98% of people who haven't recycled a device are willing to do so if there is a reward involved.

What other possible solutions do you see as viable for making the mobile industry more sustainable?